Until she herself confronted the scammer who gave her address to “customers” on the Facebook virtual flea market, a Charlesbourg resident received visits at her home from several people who thought they were getting their purchases back .
Doubtful, Louise Larocque turns to her husband to try to understand what the man waiting on the steps is telling her. “Honey, there is a gentleman at the door for the snowblower… do we sell the snowblower?”
– No, her husband replies, we don’t sell the snowblower.
– Yes, yes, look, that’s the address you gave me!, continues the man standing in the door frame, showing a conversation on the screen of his cell phone.
But the Marketplace ad disappeared, along with the poor man’s money, and his hope of leaving with a snowblower.
It was Friday of last week, and the scene would repeat itself seven times from then until Sunday afternoon.
“I said to my boyfriend: ‘Luckily you’re here, otherwise I would have started to be “paranoid” with all these people who show up at the door after having lost 100-150 piastres!” explains Mme Larocque.
The last person to show up had taken photos of the conversation and the profile of the person who claimed to sell him a “Thermomix TM6 machine in very good condition with accessories and user and recipe books”. A certain Martine Daigle, according to information from her Facebook account, who may be an imposture.
“I found her on Marketplace, then I told her that I was interested in an article,” says Louise Larocque. She told me she wanted a deposit, I replied that there was no problem, that she just had to give me her address, since my husband was already on his way.”
“Then she gave me my own address!” exclaims the lady who lives in Charlesbourg. “I reported it to the police and then told the person that they had given me my own address.”
Since then, no one has come to her house, to her great relief, but the scammer has not stopped his activities. According to text messages seen The newspaper“Martine Daigle” now gives her victims an address domiciled in Laval.
Tactics
THE modus operandi of “Martine Daigle” is always the same. When a customer shows interest in an item, she requests a small deposit by Interac transfer, under the pretext of reserving the item and “avoiding other serious buyers.”
Then, she gives an address (in several cases, that of Mme Larocque) and a telephone number. However, by dialing one of these numbers, THE Newspaper was able to see that it was also a fake.
There are several red flags here, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center website. Naming other potential buyers puts pressure on victims, creating a sense of urgency to get people to donate a small amount of money before they can even establish the item exists. . The other information is used to put the victim at ease.
Victim in spite of herself
In this case, Louise Larocque became, despite herself, the collateral victim of a fraudster. Even though she didn’t lose a single penny, she believes that the damage she suffered is very real.
“The people who arrived here were not in a good mood when they realized that they had been cheated, and then they kept banging on the door!” she says. “It was stressful, I had trouble sleeping. I hope this doesn’t happen to others.”